Saboteurs of our education reforms will be dealt with – Makinde

Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo state has warned those with intention of sabotaging his administration’s efforts at repositioning the education sector to have a rethink or face the consequence of their actions, when caught.

Makinde gave the warning on Wednesday at the inauguration of a N50 million multi-purpose hall, donated to Ilora Baptist Grammar School by one of its old students, Remi Oyekola.

He said that his government was determined to move education forward in the state, noting that the sector had experienced many systemic failures.

“As an administration, we are focused on dealing with these failures by re-engineering processes, but the thing is that re-engineering processes take longer time,” he stated.

Makinde frowned at the activities of some unknown persons who burnt down a public school in Ibadan on Monday, adding that some laboratory equipments were also stolen in some other schools.

He warned those behind the devilish acts to desist or face the full wrath of the law, if caught.

The governor refuted the insinuations by some people that the incidents were as a result of the cancellation of the N3,000 payment in public schools, which incapacitated the Parent-Teachers’ Associations from engaging the service of night guards in schools.

He assured the people of the state that there was no going back in the free education programme of his administration.

According to him, the cancellation of the N3,000 development levy has resulted in mass transfer of students to public schools in the state.

“As at the last count, we have received over 3,000 transfer applications into the state public schools.

“The influx of students into public schools as a result of the cancelation of fees and ongoing improvement of learning facilities in state-owned schools has two major effects, which we have pre-empted.

“First, there is an increased pressure on facilities; there is a limit to the number of students that can be accommodated in the public schools.

“So, the process of construction and renovation which we have started will continue.

“The good thing is that we can access UBEC funds because our administration has made it a priority to always provide the counterpart funding as required by law; so this will help to ease the burden of building.

“The second effect of the ongoing transfers from private to public schools is that the shortage of teachers is more evident. Before we came into office, there was already a shortage of teachers. A quick solution to that problem was the creation of PTA teachers.

“Even then, schools still had a shortage of teachers. However, it was clear to us that surcharging parents to fund recruitment of teachers is not a sustainable solution.

“Challenges on the issue of PTA teachers and our ‘no-levies’ policy are currently being resolved,” the governor explained.

He therefore, admonished some teachers who thought they could not survive without collecting illegal fees from pupils/students to resign and look for something else to be doing.

Makinde promised to strengthen the Schools Governing Boards (SGBs), saying that they must gave approval to any spending above N200,000.

“The school principal can spend up to N20,000 without approval, while money above N20,000 and up to N200,000 must get the approval of the finance committee of such school board.

“Any money above N200,000 must get the approval of the entire SGBs, and we will be auditing their accounts.”

While commending the donor for giving back to his alma mater, Makinde noting that government alone could not fund education and, therefore, urged well-meaning sons and daughters of the state to emulate Oyekola’s gesture.

“The old students of every school are a big part of the education system; after leaving school and making something for themselves, either as individuals or as groups, they are obligated to come back and give something back to their school, no matter how small.

“I am proud of Mr Remi Oyekola for giving back to his alma mater; what he has done is to key into the system and do his part to improve the standard of education in the school.

Oyekola, in his speech, said he decided to build the structure for his alma mater as his own contribution to the school that produced him.

He narrated how his mother sold her only goat and other property to pay his WAEC fees in 1982 when there was no money to register for the examination.